


Idle Curiosity

by jakia



Series: Essek Week [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Demisexual Essek, M/M, Pining, inappropriate spying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:53:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23418538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jakia/pseuds/jakia
Summary: The fact is this: it is impossible to spy on Caleb Widogast.Essek knows this, of course, because a few months ago his job was to spy on the Mighty Nein, and every time he looked in Caleb’s direction while scrying he would see nothing but fuzz and distortion.So, he never sees Caleb naked.[for Essek Week 2020, day three: spy]
Relationships: Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
Series: Essek Week [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1682107
Comments: 3
Kudos: 188
Collections: Essek Week





	Idle Curiosity

**Author's Note:**

> This is too short and apparently just spicy enough to be problematic, but I am out of energy/time/motivation, so have just a little piece of Shadowgast.

The fact is this: it is impossible to spy on Caleb Widogast.

Essek _knows_ this, of course, because a few months ago his job was the spy on the Mighty Nein, and every time he looked in Caleb’s direction while scrying he would see nothing but fuzz and distortion.

So, he never sees Caleb naked.

Not that he _wants_ to! Of course not! That would be disrespectful, and _rude_ , and Essek is neither of those things. 

Still, he finds his mind...wanders, sometimes. Idle curiosity, mostly. It’s because he _can’t_ spy on Caleb that he imagines him the most, he thinks. He’s seen Fjord naked like three times (on accident, of course), and it’s not had this sort of effect on him. 

The effect, of course, is that he is so very _curious_. 

(And that’s all this is, really. Curiosity. It can’t be anything else. He won’t let it be. For what other reason beyond intellectual curiosity could there be to explain why he wants to know what Caleb looks like naked? He’s never been-- _interested_ in such things before.)

(He’s also never _felt_ like this before.)

So he imagines, sometimes, what Caleb must look like. Underneath his dark purple coat and book holsters and long tunics. Wonders if Caleb has a skinny ribcage, like Essek’s been mocked for having in the past. Wonders if Caleb carries any scars in interesting places, things he must have acquired adventuring as he does. Wonders if Caleb’s calves are muscular--they must be, right? He walks _everywhere_.

Wonders if there are _other_ parts of Caleb that are long and slender, like his fingers.

  
(He’ll realize later, of course, why Caleb has this affect on him. Why it bothers him so much that he can’t spy on him, that his magic is so _useless_ against him. But that’s a revelation for later, when he realizes he _feels_ so strongly about Caleb, that he’s the source of his curiosity and attraction and change of heart all in one.)


End file.
